CandGemblvj: Mod2 Chapters 14 ,15

CHAPTER 14 DESIGN IDEAS: METALLIC PIECE. Image 1. ( size 24 inches x 16 inches) My design ideas for this piece are linked to a recurring motif which I have found throughout module 2 ,that of leaves. Leaves figure in many of the Opus Anglicanum textile samples, in stained glass windows and ceramic tiles of the same period. In my posts for module 2 Chapter 10 of 28th February Images 16 and 18 were workings of leaves in metallics and sweet papers and a number of thoughts arose from these samples. Taking leaves as the underlying subject I felt that I wanted to use the repetition of a number of shapes and that I did not want the finished article to be completely flat. I am , however, seeking to make a decorative picture rather than an object of some kind. The image below is one working of an idea from a drawing of a floor tile from a side chapel at Ely Cathedral dating from 1350. The tile was painted with a leaf shape similar to the large background leaf in this image. I made a series of leaves, at present all the same shape, in stiffened net. I machined patterns of veins etc and attached the leaves in a overlapping pattern over the base shape which was mounted on wadding. This was a starting point for some other experiments.

Image 2 (size 24 inches by 16 inches)

This is a painted design of a variety of shapes of leaves, faded flowers and seed heads on paper. The design moves in an arched shape across the paper and is the actual size I will probably work to.

IMAGE 3 (Size 24 inches by 16 inches)

Having drawn the design on paper I began to experiment with potential backgrounds and materials for leaves. At the top of this image is a strip of buckram . The left hand side is its natural shade whilst the right hand side is coloured with fabric paint. The leaves are painted on with acrylics.

The bottom strip is formed by painting bondaweb and fusing it to both sides of a strip of abaca fibre. This gives the paper like quality of leaves in Autumn.

Image 4 (size 24 inches x 16 inches)

I then went on to experiment with making the leaves metallic. In this image at the Top left the green leaves surrounding a previously worked sample for this module were made from fragments of metallics and organza on a base of acrylic felt . The design was drawn on the back of the felt and stiched from the back. the excess felt and front fabrics were then bunt away and some of the layers were melted through to reveal the metallics. In the centre (between the green leaves and the embroidery hoop) is a leaf cut from the bondaweb /abaca sandwich and then dusted with copper embossing powder. The leaf could then be further defined by stitching in metallic threads. In the embroidery hoop there are a number of leaf shapes cut from a bonded sandwich of organza and metallic fragments. In addition one of the leaves has had copper wire applied to its main veins. The reason for this was twofold-- firstly to add definition and secondly to enable the finished leaf to be bent into shape . On the bottom row leaf shapes have been cut from gold mesh, metallic plastic film and copper shim. At present these are in ' raw' state prior to further decoration.

From these initial experiments I believe I could make a sample on the painted buckram with a gold wire 'bough' in an arched shape and fixed about two inches above and across the design. it would then be possible to work leaves both flat on the painted background and then additional metallic leaves could be made, using a variety of techiniques, and fixed to the bough.